Oxford History: The High

66: Part of Stanford House / 67–68: High Street Café

These are the fifth, sixth, and seventh in the terrace of eleven houses and shops belonging to Magdalen College that is attached to the back of Magdalen Gate house. This terrace was rebuilt subsequent to the widening of Magdalen Bridge that took place in 1772–8.

Nos. 66, 67 & 68 are jointly Grade II listed (List Entry No. 1047289). They were in St Peter-in-the East parish until that parish was united with St Cross parish in 1957.

No. 66 was university lodgings since at least the 1840s. Since 1984, Stanford University in California has leased it with No. 65 and the upstairs of the adjoining houses for their students.

No. 67 has been united with No. 68 at ground-floor level as a shop since at least the 1850s.

At the time of the Survey of Oxford in 1772 the former house on the site of No. 66 was (according to Salter) occupied by a Mr Kensal (frontage 6 yards 0 ft 8in); the former No. 67 by a Mrs Howel (frontage 6 yd 0 ft 0 in), and the former No. 68 by a Mr Barnet (frontage 5 yd 1 ft 3 in).

Present No. 66

At the time of the 1841 census the college servant William Cattle lived here with his wife and two children and their three lodgers and a servant.

In 1851 (conflicting
with the directories) the census shows James P. Shepperd, Clerk of Magdalen
College, living at No. 66 with his son William (a cook) and daughter, and
a housekeeper.

On 7 July 1855 the death at this house of Charles Castle (47), a tobacconist, was announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal.

In 1861 Mrs Arabella Castle lived here with her daughter and one servant, plus a lodger.

In 1871 the bank clerk William Harris lived here with his family.

In 1881, No. 66 was occupied by a 33-year-old
male cook called Hill and his wife and daughter.

By 1891 No. 66 also had become a lodging house, kept by the widow Mrs Caroline Bennett, who lived here with her three children.

In 1911 Mrs Bennet (66) was still running a university lodging house in the nine rooms here with the help of one servant

The advertisement on the left, which dates from the 1950s, shows how university lodgings became guest houses in the vacation

Present Nos. 67 & 68

The shop at No. 67–68 awkwardly straddles two buildings: on the left, it cuts into the last, maroon-coloured house of a Georgian terrace; on the right it occupies a tall black-and-white building. This unlikely looking pair was already a single shop by 1846.

At the time of the 1841 census the wine merchant John Hounslow lived here over his shop with his son and daughter and a female servant. He was still here in 1851, now described as a grocer
as well as wine merchant, with his wife and daughter,
plus an apprentice and servant. Living over No. 68 was a shoemaker called Samuel
Hounslow (probably his brother) together with his wife and four children. Hounslow
was described as “the Radical grocer in High Street” by William Tuckwell
in his Reminiscences of Oxford, and is recorded as giving this advice
on sermons in Oxford: “’Obhouse and ’Ansell are below par; go to ’Olywell
and ’ear Goulburn.”

In 1859 James Jenkin, a schoolmaster, married Hounslow’s daughter Caroline. The 1861 census shows that John Hounslow (66) was still the grocer & wine merchant here, living over the shop with his wife and their housemaid; but by 1867 his son-in-law James Jenkin had become the grocer and wine merchant here, and in 1871 was living here with his wife and their first four children.

At the time of the 1881 census James Jenkin lived over No. 68 together with
his wife, five children, his half-brother (described as a grocer’s assistant),
and a general servant. He was elected Mayor of Oxford later that year.

In 1891 the printer Cyril Vincent, a printer, lived over No. 67 with his five children and their servant. He too was to become Mayor of Oxford, but not until 1915. James Jenkin (62) still lived over No. 68 with his wife and two children, plus their 16-year-old servant girl.

When Jenkin died in 1898, his wife and his only son, Herbert Jenkin, took over from him, and the latter remained in business until
1923. The postcard below probably dates from the early 1900s.

In 1911 the widow Laurina Emily Penny and her daughter kept a university lodging house in the nine rooms above No. 67, while Caroline Jenkin (77) and her four unmarried children, including Herbert Jenkin (46), who now managed the shop for her occupied the eight rooms above No. 68. Caroline died over this shop on 9 January 1912, and by 1914 her son had changed the shop's name from James Jenkin to Herbert Jenkin.

The shop continued to be occupied by a wine merchant’s business until 1962. The photograph below comes from a promotional booklet of photographs produced by W. H. Ryder & Son (Reading) Ltd, Architectural Woodmasters. As well as much work for churches, banks, and breweries they did shopfitting, and included in their list of clients Courage, which had taken over H. & G. Simonds. Their shopfront remains in place today, with the door on the right that led upstairs changed to a third narrow but matching window.

Photograph kindly supplied by Anthony Guy

The large warehouse behind No. 68 has been converted into the Stanford House Library.